I started watching Strongbad E-mails whilst finishing my Univeristy course at Teesside. Throughout the long hours slaving away in front of my computer, the odd escape into the world of Strongbad was a much needed release.
For those who are not familiar with Strongbad, he is a character of unique proportions in every way. Each week he goes to check his e-mail and then responds accordingly in his own way. The e-mails he receives are real, usually from watchers of the show. The responses vary, some are short and curt, others are just bizzare, but one thing they all share in common is their ability to make me fall of my chair with laughter.
Three years later and Strongbad has got through three computers, but he is still going strong. Some of my favourite episodes over the years have been “Gimmik” (the death of Compy), “Sisters”, “Guitars” and “Virus” (The death of Compy 386). If you’re new to Strongbad, then you’re in for a treat and I recommend strongly you start from the very beginning - which is at the bottom of the list of episodes (e-mails).
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html
15.Feb.06 
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In recent months, Apple have been filing a number of patents covering touch sensative technology for various devices, one of their images clearly showing someone interacting with a tablet-like device. Although many are speculating that Apple are developing this technology for the next generation of iPods, as well as the long running legend of a replacement for the Apple Newton, I think Apple may also be looking to their desktop computers too.
Considering Apple are now supplying 30″ displays, and in the future are likely to offer even larger displays, wouldn’t it be sensible to do away with the mouse and keyboard and just use the display as the main input and feedback device? It would be easy to overlay a keyboard onto a display, and with Apple’s handwritting recognition software slowly getting better, there could be scope for the user to simply handwrite messages onto the screen. The touch sensitive display would negate the need for a mouse in most applications. (more…)
14.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comment (1)
The world is slowly changing and not for the better. Our dependency on oil for our heating, our industry and worst of all, our transport, is slowly choking our planet to death. In the last ten years, scientists have been continually telling our governments that something has got to change, or in the next 50 years, we are going to see some major changes to our environment.
Already the Artic and Antartic ice caps are melting. The weather in Europe and America is also beginning to show real signs of change; flooding and drought in Europe; Hurricane Katrina in the US. All of these events are not just co-incidence, but can be attributed directly to climate change. For it’s part, the world is now starting to listen to these so called ‘crazy’ scientists, the Kyoto Agreement was meant to be the first positive step towards change, except the worlds largest polluter decided not to agree to it. Could this be because the current President is funded for the most part by oil companies? (more…)
13.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
You may have noticed that the Polaris Digital site uses two columns to present text and information. We all know that columns just make reading large quantities of text a lot easier - newspapers and magazines have known this for centuries.
Currently PDnH uses a crude system of having seperate entries in the MySQL database for each column. However from version 0.2.0 onwards, the number of columns and the text in those columns will be rendered dynamically. I have just finished writing a new class that splits the bodytext up evenly by however many columns you want and then creates the DIV tags to render the text correctly with spacing.
(more…)
11.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
PDnH, the Content Management System (CMS) that has been in development for the last two months has reached version 0.1.0. The very first release of PDnH is entirely internal and I am currently preparing for the build of version 0.2.0 which should be released in a couple of weeks.
When version 0.2.0 is released it will be available through Polaris Digital and Source Forge. New features in version 0.2.0 are as follows;
- Optimised page render engine
- Shopping cart
- Podcasting support (currently testing in version 0.1.0)
- Google Sitemap protocol support (currently testing in version 0.1.0)
- Modular code base, allowing other developers to create their own plug-ins
I am about to open PDnH up to for ALPHA testing by the wider community. If you would be interested in helping develop PDnH then please respond to this post.
10.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (4)
Thinksecret.com reported yesterday that the next generation of iPods will be with us this Easter. The new iPod will continue Apple’s venture into portable video devices. The new iPod will feature a full widescreen touch sensitive colour LCD display that covers the entire face of the iPod. The click wheel and other buttons will all be digitally included into the touch sensitive interface, so that the when you move your finger in a circular motion on the screen, the click wheel appears and rotates and then fades away when you have finished browsing.
Think Secret reported the existence of such a device last year before the current 5th generation video iPods where released and has maintained that Apple were working on a completely new revision of the iPod line.
Remember this is all speculation, but Think Secret are generally a reliable source for news about Apple products not officially announced.
10.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
Polaris Digtial Pictures (PDP) has begun video podcasting all of our releases along side this web site. You can now subscribe to the PDP video podcast using Apple iTunes, where you’ll find our podcast listed in the “Movies & Television” section - the more savvy users could search for it within the Apple iTunes Music Store. The files have been compressed especially for iTunes, so if you’re a lucky video iPod owner, you can watch whilst out and about.
Currently only Butterflies (2004) and Karma Kollectors (2005), both directed by Jo Clark, are available. However in the next month The Watercloset Diary (2004) will be released with The Möbius Strip (2004) following in the summer. The delay getting my films released is due to music licensing, currently in the middle of negotiations with the MCPS.
Click here to go to the podcast in iTunes.
09.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
Just in case you thought both Siân and I had forgotten about this, we have stopped smoking now and are beginning the long detox process. It is not easy! I am currently quite ill as a direct result of quitting, but I can certainly see light at the end of the tunnel and I certainly haven’t had the urge to smoke in over a week. I choose the cold turkey approach as my Nicotine addiction isn’t as strong and I was classed as a light/occasional smoker.
Siân is having a harder time as she has smoked regularly since she was twelve, that’s eleven years of smoking. Initially she was approaching this in a cold turkey manner but her Nicotine starvation proved too painful and she has now resorted to patches. Since using the patches her urges to smoke have completely vanished and in a week the courses will be reduced to nothing.
On the plus side, my sense of taste and smell have improved ten fold in a week. I generally feel more awake and alive than before and I now wonder why I didn’t do this sooner.
08.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
Click to enlarge
BBC TWO have completely revamped their web site, and I am assuming their onscreen branding although I can’t confirm that as I haven’t seen any change yet. The new web site contains hours of clips of video from upcoming programmes as well as past programmes. All BBC TWO shows will be available to watch online for up to a week after they air, and in some cases the entire series will be available.
The new site was launched in time for the new season of The Apprentice (UK), which will use the new features of the site. I am personally glad to see that for the front page at least, the BBC have opted to use the Macromedia Flash Platform to deliver their video, much like Polaris Digital has - good old beeb!
BBC TWO web site
07.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
It seems to be the hot topic at the moment as the Muslim world clashes, violently at times, with the ‘West’. For those who are totally out of the loop on this issue, I’ll give you a brief summery of events.
September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes a cartoon dipicting the profit Muhammed with a bomb on his head. By October 2005 many Islamic country leaders where protesting to the EU about the cartoon and in certain cases, their diplomats where withdrawn from Denmark and eventually other EU countries. During the lead up to Christmas and into 2006, many Islamic extremists have threatened to kill the artists who created the cartoon and the Muslim world has generally been upset.
In recent days, we have seen the EU diplomatic post in Gaza closed by extremists, Danish and Norwegian embassies vandlised and in some cases set alight. There is trouble out there, even here in the UK we have been seeing demonstrations with plaques denouncing the western media and calling for anyone who mocks the profit Muhammed to be beheaded. (more…)
06.Feb.06 Uncategorized Comments (3)
